If you’re thinking you’ve come across Rashmi before, you have – her track Puzzle featured as one of our Thursday exclusives in July. But with the complete Puzzle EP about to drop, we wanted to know more!

Currently based in New York, Rashmi grew up in Dallas, raised on a musical diet of country radio and the soundtracks to the Hindi films her parents watched at home. Which goes a long way to explaining the music she makes today – imagine Fleetwood Mac fronted by Sheila Chandra and you’re somewhere in the ballpark!

“The Indian influence comes mostly in the way I’m singing, in the melody line,” agrees Rashmi. She cites Bollywood legend-turned-restaurateur Asha Bhosle and movie vocalist Geeta Dutt as key inspirations, alongside “James Taylor, Dolly Parton, Carol King, Reba McIntyre, but also pop music like Madonna. And I like Patty Griffin, who’s more contemporary… she’s terrific, both her writing and her vocals.”

Rashmi released an album way back in 2006, but since then she’s mostly been busy with her parallel career as an actress and screenwriter. “I was always composing,” she says, “but yes, I was living in LA and doing a lot of TV and voiceover work, and then I started writing a screenplay. So it was just that the creativity shifted to a different medium for a while.”

Going forward, then, will she be concentrating more on music or on acting? “To me they’re all the same,” says Rashmi. “I’m either playing an instrument, or if I’m acting then I’m the instrument. Lots of artists do different things – a lot of actors paint, for instance. A lot of them dance and sing… in fact in the old days everyone used to! Sometimes you want to tell a story in a visual way, sometimes you want to tell it through a song. I used to try and do all of it, all the time, but that can drive you nuts! So I just trust that the right opportunities will come up in each medium at the right time.

“Right now though,” she concludes, “I’m really proud of this EP, so I just want to get it out there and hope people appreciate it.”